Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Dispensation of the Mystery


Ephesians 3:1-10

Our God is a revealer of truth. He revealed truth in a certain way: Progressively. There are certain truths that are mysteries to us, until God reveals them. Our minds cannot comprehend these truths until they are revealed. When God makes them known they become “revealed mysteries.” Now they can be understood.

One of these mysteries is the dispensation in which we live—the dispensation of the mystery or grace. A dispensation is a distinct economy in the redemptive plan of God. The Greek word is oikonomia, a compound word meaning “a law of the house.” It signifies an administration or management of a household. In the history of God’s household there have been different administrations or dispensations. Most dispensationalists recognize seven: Innocence, conscience, Government, Promise, Law, Grace, and Kingdom. Today we are under the dispensation of grace.

In Ephesians 3:1-10 we see an amazing truth: the dispensation of grace is also the dispensation of the mystery. The text is clear on that point. There can be no doubt but that the phrase “dispensation of the mystery” (3:9) is identified as the “dispensation of grace” (3:2). They are not two distinct dispensations, but one and the same.

As we study this present dispensation, this passage tells us five things:

  1. ITS REVEALER: GOD
This passage twice tells us that this dispensation was “hidden in God” before it was revealed (3:3, 5, 9; cf. Colossians 1:25). This great secret was hidden in the heart of God and was never revealed to man in past generations—not to the prophets, the writers of the Old Testament, or anyone else in the past. Therefore, this dispensation will not be found in the Old Testament revelation. It was unrevealed, a secret in the heart of God. Unless He revealed it, no man would know of it. God was its revealer.

  1. ITS APOSTLE: PAUL
Paul was the instrument to whom God gave and revealed this present dispensation (3:2). He revealed it to Paul and Paul revealed it to the world. Lewis Sperry Chafer was correct when he wrote: “It was not Peter, James nor John…but to Paul only that this distinctive revelation came.”[1] C.F. Baker makes a good point when he writes: “Many dispensationalists teach that this dispensation was given to the Twelve Apostles at Pentecost, but is it not strange that not one of the Apostles said anything about it, either in the book of Acts or in their epistles?”[2] To hold that this revelation was given to anyone before Paul is a contradiction of what is taught in Ephesians 3. No wonder Paul refers to the revelation of this mystery as “my gospel” (Romans 16:25), for it was revealed to him to proclaim to the world.
  1. ITS NATURE: THE JOINT BODY OF JEW AND GENTILE
Ephesians 3:6 declares the nature of the present dispensation—God is now making a joint body of Jew and Gentile. The Gentiles and Jews are now on an equal basis. There is no longer a distinction between them. Both are being reconciled into one new man, the body of Christ (cf. Ephesians 2:11, 16). Chafer writes:
This declaration must not be treated lightly. That the gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body is not a recognition of the Old Testament prediction that, during Israel’s coming kingdom glory, Gentiles will be raised to a subordinate participation in those blessings (Isa. 60:12). Those predictions were of an earthly calling, and being revealed in very much Old Testament prophecy, could not be part of the heavenly calling of the mystery hid in God. This mystery is of a present uniting of Jews and Gentiles into one body—a new divine purpose and therefore, in no sense the perpetuation of anything which has been before.”[3]
Campbell states that the importance of this is seen in the fact that: “The mystery is the sole source of authority that we Gentiles have for claiming equal status with the Jews in the body of Christ, the church.[4]
Jews and Gentiles in this dispensation are “fellow-heirs,”—sunkleronomos, meaning co-inheritors. It denotes equality in inheritance. We are also of the “same body”—sussomos, a compound word indicating a united body. And we are “fellow-partakers”—summetochos, meaning partakers together with one another, denoting equality in participation. A Jew is not above a Gentile, nor is a Gentile above a Jew. There is no distinction; all are equal in the Church, the body of Christ. This is that nature of the dispensation of the mystery.

  1. ITS PURPOSE: MAKING KNOWN THE WISDOM OF GOD.
Ephesians 3:10 gives us the purpose of this dispensation. We have a mission on earth to win others to Christ (2 Corinthians 5), but our eternal purpose deals with the heavenlies. “That the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly place.” The word “that” (iva) expresses purpose. This verse expresses three things: (1) what our purpose is. We are to make known the manifold wisdom of God. We are revealers of God’s wisdom. A wisdom that is foolishness to the world (cf. 1 Cor. 18:30). The word manifold (polupoikilos) indicates the variety and beauty of the wisdom of God as it is revealed in our salvation. (2) When it is revealed. It is “now.” The Greek word is nun and denotes time, the immediate present. (3) To whom we are revealing it: “To the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly place.” God is educating the angles through us. The phrase probably refers to both good and evil angels. 1 Peter 1:12 tells us that the angels want to now about our salvation and desire to look into it (cf. 1 Cor. 4:9). This wisdom was hid to the “princes of this world” or age. Who are these to which it was hid? It was not only the political rulers at the time of Christ, but the real rulers behind these men, are the demonic rulers of the age. The word “world” is aion, meaning age, not kosmos meaning the world or the earth. The real battle is not with earthly princes, but heavenly ones (Eph. 6:12). They did not know simply the wisdom of God, but the hidden wisdom of God, which was ordained “to our glory.” It is “through” the church that these principalities and powers are learning what they did when they crucified our Lord. Had they known this manifold wisdom of God; they would not have crucified our Lord. Why? It is because through the cross Christ has disarmed them (Col. 2:15). This was His eternal purpose in Christ (Eph. 3:11).

  1. ITS RESULT: FREE AND EQUAL ACCESS TO GOD.
Paul says in this dispensation of the mystery or grace, we have free and confident access without distinction to God (Eph. 3:12). Now there are no national, racial, or social distinctions. Under this dispensation of grace there is NO difference, all have sinned (Rom. 3:23), and all can come to Christ on the basis of faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross (Eph. 2:8-10). Now we who believe are “one in Christ” (Gal. 3:28). All have free and equal access by faith during this dispensation. No wonder Paul said that he wanted to bring to light the dispensation of the mystery. It is the manifold wisdom of God that was once hidden, but now revealed.



[1]  Lewis Sperry Chafer, THE EPHESIANS LETTER, [Dunham, Grand Rapids, 1935], 96.
[2]  C.F. Baker, UNDERSTANDING THE BODY OF CHRIST, [Grace Bible College, Grand Rapids, 1985], 28.
[3]  Chafer, 99.
[4]  Ernest R. Campbell, A COMMENTARY OF EPHESIANS [Canyonview Press, Silverton OR, 1986], 107.

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